"Where had you been? I thought you were coming," Abeo said in greeting when he spotted me in the crowd.
"Traffic. Happy birthday!" I said, rushing into his arms so he'd be satisfied.
"Thank you," he said, wrapping his arms around me and burying his face into my hair.
"I got you a gift," I said softly and led him away from the crowd. "It's not much but when I saw this, it reminded me of you." I let go of his hand to fish the bracelet out of my bag. It was full of tiny soccer balls. I thought it was a little ugly but I just didn't have time to pick a better gift and just because he'd told me soccer was his one true love in his life a million times, it wpuld have been too much work to get him anything else. Just get them a necklace or a bracelet that had something to do with what they were passionate about and they'd be happy and think it was the best gift ever.
As expected, Abeo's eyes lit up as I held it up for him to see. "This is beautiful!" He said, touching a little soccer ball.
"Here, let me put it on you." I helped him with the bracelet and he examined it carefully.
"This is so thoughtful. I got so many expensive gifts but this is best one." I already knew he was going to say something like that.
"I'm glad you like it. I know how much you love soccer." Then I looked at my watch. I was time bound. I had something more important to do. "Where are the others?"
"Scattered all around. Got tired of waiting for you but only I waited until you showed up."
I winced at how particularly cheesy he was being today. "Thank you. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'll be right back."
"Oh, okay."
I left him to mingle with the other guests and headed straight for his dad's office. It had already been five minutes since I came here. Nova wouldn't be far behind. I guessed I had five more minutes until he showed up here.
I intentionally avoided bumping into people I knew and steered clear of crowds. I took the longer and deserted route to the office in case someone had their eyes on me. Again, being gorgeous did have its downfalls when you were on a secret mission.
Finally, I reached the door and looked around to see if my surroundings were empty. Then I gripped the handle...only to find it was locked.
"Shit." I tried to twist it again but it wouldn't budge. "No, fucking hell!"
Today had been the perfect time to get things done but how did I not think that he would lock his office up when there were so many people in and around the house. It was unlocked during the pool party probably because he didn't know that Abeo had thrown a party.
I closed my eyes and pressed my fingers to my temple. "Think. Think. Think. What can you do?" I muttered to myself.
"You can try this." A small squeal of surprise left my lips and my heart was about burst out of my chest.
Kaan held up a key to me. "Sorry, did I scare you again?"
I was so annoyed I kicked him in the shin. "You've got to stop doing that."
He hopped around with his leg in his hand. "That hurt."
I snatched the key from him. "Is this really the key to the office?"
"See for yourself."
"Why do you have it?"
"I knew you were up to something tonight. When I saw you here last time, I just got the feeling you'd come back for something. So I wanted to help."
"How did you get the key?"
"When I arrived here, I checked the door and it was locked so I sneaked into Kwame's room and stole it. It was pretty difficult to find amongst so many keys in his drawers. I almost got caught by his wife."
"Good job. I thought my plan was going to go to shit but this was exactly what I needed. You can go now."
"I want to help. I'll keep a watch here. Distract people if they linger around here."
"Fine," I grumbled. "Just don't get in my way."
"All yours," he said, gesturing toward the door.
I unlocked it and shut it behind me. I immediately went to the drawer where he had a secret compartment with the four digit passcode for access and pulled it open. I set my bag down and took out the baby powder and a brush.
Then I dipped the brush in the powder and once it had picked off a generous amount of it, I started flicking it all over the buttons. It being all black made it easy for the fingerprints to show up against the powder. It worked perfectly as within seconds, Kwame's fingerprints were visible all over it but on four particular digits the most.
I had practiced getting fingerprints on surfaces through YouTube and it had finally paid off. I quickly noted the digits on a piece of paper I had brought along.
0-4-7-9. I didn't know the significance of those numbers and nor did I care to find out. All that mattered was that I had four digits that make up the password through some combination.
Being four in total, it meant that there were twenty-four possibilities. I would have to try out everyone to determine which was the correct one. I wrote down all the twenty-four permutations under the four numbers which took five minutes because I didn't want to rush and repeat a sequence and miss out on any.
Then I carefully cleaned the powder until there wasn't a trace left of it. I stuffed the objects into my bag and started on the first permutation.
As I had expected, it wasn't the right one so I moved on to the second one. I wasn't too worried about his dad getting an alert about these several wrong tries as he was busy with the guests and when he'd realize it, he wouldn't know who it was because there were so many people here tonight. I was able to try the first thirteen ones until I heard distant noises at the party. That could only mean one thing. Nova was here. Abeo was not happy and he was being vocal about it.
I had more eleven more to go and it was extremely important that I got the password that time because there wouldn't be another chance like this without me getting caught.
"Julia, something happening down there. We should leave." Kaan whispered to me from the door.
"I'll need another minute," I whispered back. "Keep watch."
I worked faster and entered the next combination. When I neared the twenties, I began to sweat because I was clearly taking more than a minute.
"Hurry. Everyone's downstairs. We both are the only ones not so Kwame might know it's us," Kaan said unhelpfully.
Finally thirty seconds later, I had the code–9047. It was the twenty-secondth one. Maybe I should've started from the last one.
The compartment unlocked but before I could give in to the temptation to pull it open, Kaan spoke. "Someone's coming up here. We need to get out of here right now."
"Yes, okay. I'm done."
I checked quickly to see if I had left anything that might lead to me but I was sure there was nothing.
I shot out of the room as footsteps pounded down the hallway.
Kaan and I squeezed into a room and peered out through a slit in the door. Nia Kimathi came into view, her heels clicking loudly even with all the ruckus going on downstairs.
"Yes, I'm at his party." She spoke into her phone, leaning against a wall. "I don't know. It's just something going on downstairs. Abeo is mad at someone. He's yelling at a man who I have never seen before. The only interesting thing that has happened so far. I'm bored." The person on the other side said something which caused her to giggle. "No, I can't. Boonsri needs me. I don't know why she just doesn't stay away from Abeo. She's hurting herself the most but she says she likes Colin now and I hope that's true and she's truly moving on. Colin doesn't seem so bad. He makes her laugh and she looks happy with him. That's all that matters."
"Yeah, right," I scoffed.
Kaan put a finger over his lips, signaling me to keep quiet which was unnecessary because she didn't hear anything.
"I told them I was going to the bathroom. I know. I really wish I could sleepover at yours but today I promised Boonsri and Pari that we'll have girl's night after the party at hers."
Voices raised even higher from the altercation and Nia looked down the hall, nearly looking over at us in the process.
"I need to go. Things got way too serious. I'll call you later."
She hung up and walked away.
"We need to go too. We'll first drop off the key from wherever you found it. Then we part ways and go downstairs five minutes apart."
Kaan nodded and after a quick look at both sides, we emerged from the room and hurried to Kwame's bedroom. I stood watch outside as Kaan placed the key in its place. I told him to get downstairs from the opposite side but not before threatening him into secrecy over where we were.
When I reached the hall where all the guests maintained silence except for Abeo who I had never seen get this angry.
I blended into the crowd to make it seem like I was here the whole time.
"–literally don't have anything for you to be here," Abeo was saying. "I don't know what's your deal with me. Why are you so obsessed with me, man? Want me to get a restraining order against you?"
Nova was just standing there in front of him in the clothes he had in before. He looked large and out of place in his hoodie and jeans which showed signs of being old.
He fumbled for his device, struggling to type whatever he wanted to say. I saw a slightly tremble in his fingers as he misspelled words and had to start over again.
Abeo huffed and slapped away the device. The cords hanging from around his neck snapped and before he could react, his SGD had clattered to the floor.
"I don't want to hear anything. I said get the fuck out of my house. I don't want you anywhere near me or my girl."
I cringed back. I was going to kill him if he was referring to me. I was not 'his girl'. We were just occasionally fucking.
Nova bent down and picked up the device, turning it in his hands to inspect the damage which seemed to be none. Then he started typing again, more calmly this time.
"I will leave after I find what I'm here for. I don't want to ruin your day. I need five minutes."
"What are you here to find? We don't have anything of yours here."
Nova swept his gaze over the guests and I ducked just as his eyes skimmed in my direction. When he didn't find me, he stared at Abeo's dad as if he could help.
Kwame stood silently behind his son, not interfering as Abeo lashed out. But looked beyond angry at what was happening.
"Do I have to call security to kick you out?!" Abeo yelled. "Get out while I'm still being nice."
Nova huffed out in frustration, tapping rapidly on jus device. Abeo once again smacked it away.
"You think I have time for this? Fucking mute."
Nova was about to lean down to get his device, again, when Abeo stepped on it, halting him just as he was about to reach it.
"You have something to say? Speak. Tell me through your fucking mouth. I don't have all the time in the world to wait around for you to type that shit. Just say it."
"That's really mean, Abeo. Calm down." Colin's small voice was barely audible to me.
"I'm not talking to you, so shut the–" Abeo said.
"Don't talk to him like that," Boonsri interrupted. "And you are overreacting. He didn't really do anything. Your day is ruined and you're the only one to be blamed."
Abeo scoffed as he glared at his ex. "You're really taking his side? This dumb mute–"
That's enough!" The words almost echoed in the hall and I realised I was the one who yelled them. Everyone's gaze at once landed on me. I felt the familiar attention I used to get when I was still living my old life.
"Julia, where were you?" Abeo asked.
I pushed my way toward him. "Here since you lost your shit and decided it was okay to talk to people with disability however the hell you liked."
"Babe I promise I don't talk to people like this, but it's him," he gestured to Nova in disgust. "He deserves no less."
"Who the hell are you to decide that? Just because your dad has spoiled you silly doesn't mean you are free to do whatever you want. Once you get out of this bubble, you'll see that people won't put up with your shit. So you could use a little humility."
I saw that he still had his foot over the device so I swept his feet from under him. He landed hard on his ass. I picked up the device, rubbed it clean on Abeo's expensive suit and tossed it to Nova.
"Little girl, how dare you treat my son like that?" Kwame's voice was fierce and shaking with anger. Apparently, he didn't care if Abeo acted out and made a scene but he drew the line when somebody put him in his place. Abeo shot up to his feet.
"But he can do as he wishes?" I turned to regard him. "I don't expect any better of you. After all, the son learns from his father."
Gasps sounded around the hall. Everyone talked in hushed whispers.
A middle aged man about Kwame's age stepped forward to try and diffuse the situation. "Kwame, she's just a naive little kid. She doesn't know what she's talking about. Let's just forget this ordeal and enjoy the party. Your boy turned seventeen. Let's focus on that."
He was ignored completely as Kwame spoke directly to me as if he hasn't heard a word of what the man had said. "You've got some nerve being here in my house and talking to me and my son like that."
"I'm sorry, sir. We did not come here to create problems." The electronic voice in this tense atmosphere sounded almost comical.
We turned to Nova. He met my eyes and shook his head at me, then grabbed my hand. I did not resist but didn't move to retreat either.
Kwame turned his angry gaze on Abeo. "Abeo, you will not be with this girl anymore. I do not want you to be friends with people who do not know your worth."
Abeo made a noise of protest. "But dad, it's not her fault. She's a great girl. It's Nova who started all this. Kick him out. Julia will stay."
"Security!" He shouted and in burst two guards, awaiting instructions. "Kick both of them out."
One of them hauled Nova towards the door and the other moved to grab my arm but I held a hand up in warning.
"I have no interest in wasting my time here anymore. Your guards are unnecessary."
Colin, Aurelio, Frida and Eli made a move to follow me. "Stay," I told them, looking at Aurelio. "The menu sounds delicious."
Abeo tried to convince his dad to let me stay but I interrupted him. "Happy birthday, Abeo."
Then I left the house with Nova getting half dragged behind me.
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